UNITED
NATIONS, May 5
-- Nine days
after Iran's
foreign
minister Javad
Zarif met with
America's John
Kerry but the
UN of Ban
Ki-moon banned
Inner City
Press from
covering it,
Zarif wrote to
Ban about
American
courts'
"ruling that
authorized the
confiscation
of nearly 1.8
billion US
Dollars of
assets
belonging to
the Central
Bank of Iran
to the benefit
of private
litigants."

On May
5, Iran's
mission sent
to Ban this
NAM statement:

"Communiqué
by the
Coordinating
Bureau of the
Non-Aligned
Movement in
Rejection of
Unilateral
Actions by the
United States
in
Contravention
of
International
Law, in
Particular the
Principle of
State Immunity

The
Coordinating
Bureau of the
Non-Aligned
Movement
rejects the
illegal
practice of
the United
States in
defying
international
law by
allowing and
facilitating
private
plaintiffs to
bring civil
action before
U.S courts
against
sovereign
States,
including the
Islamic
Republic of
Iran, leading
to the awards
of default
judgments
against them
and their
national
institutions.
Legislation by
US Congress to
pave the way
for illegally
confiscating
foreign assets
in the US and
the actions by
the US
government to
unlawfully
hold them
enable U.S
courts to
issue
groundless
rulings.

The
CoB objects to
US defiance to
international
law through
the unilateral
waiving of the
sovereign
immunity of
States and
their
institutions
in total
contravention
of the
international
and treaty
obligations of
the United
States and
under a
spurious legal
ground that
the
international
community does
not recognize.
This practice
runs counter
to the most
fundamental
principles of
international
law, in
particular the
principle of
sovereign
immunity as
one of the
cornerstones
of the
international
legal order
and a rule of
customary
international
law - a
principle
whose primacy
is recognized
by the
community of
nations, all
legal systems
and the
International
Court of
Justice and
was most
recently
codified in
the United
Nations
Convention on
Jurisdictional
Immunities of
States and
Their
Property.

The
CoB calls upon
the
United States
of America to
respect the
principle of
State
immunity, and
reiterates
that failing
to do so would
have adverse
implications,
including
uncertainty
and chaos in
international
relations and
the
undermining of
the rule of
law at the
international
level, and
would
constitute an
international
wrongful act,
which entails
international
responsibility.

The
CoB seizes
this
opportunity to
reiterate the
NAM's call to
uphold
dialogue and
accommodation
over coercion
and
confrontation
as well as to
promote
peaceful
settlement of
disputes."

Back
on April 19
when US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry and
Iran's Foreign
Minister Javad
Zarif met in
the UN on
April 19, they
each announced
they would
meet again on
April 22 about
the JCPOA.

While this
might seem
like
mechanical
news, the UN
and its
partners in
censorship saw
fit to make it
difficult or
impossible for
non-favored
journalists to
cover it.
Inner City
Press, which
until this
year being
ousted (on
February 19, audio
here) and
then evicted
(on April 16,
video
here and here), was always able to cover
events on the
UN's second
floor, now
can't.

A
request to
pass through
the turnstile
was denied,
and Media
Accreditation,
which oversaw
and filmed
Saturday's
eviction, was
no help. But
here, as fast
as Inner City
Press could
obtain them,
are the
quotes:

Kerry:
"We agreed to
– we’re both
working at
making sure
that the
JCPOA, the
Iran agreement
– nuclear
agreement – is
implemented in
exactly the
way that it
was meant to
be and that
all the
parties to
that agreement
get the
benefits that
they are
supposed to
get out of the
agreement.
So we worked
on a number of
key things
today,
achieved
progress on
it, and we
agreed to meet
on
Friday.
After the
signing of the
climate change
agreement, we
will meet
again to sort
of solidify
what we talked
about today."

Zarif
confirmed, “We
focused on how
we will
implement the
JCPOA. We meet
again on
Friday.”

But why would
the UN evict
and restrict
reporters, for
their
coverage? The
ouster and
eviction were
ordered by
Under
Secretary
General
Cristina
Gallach, with
a conflict of
interest as
she appears in
the UN's
Ng Lap Seng
case audit at
Paragraphs
37-40 and
20(b); Ban
Ki-moon told
Inner City
Press, "That
is not my
decision."
We'll have
more on this.

When
the US
dramatically
called for a
UN Security
Council
meeting about
Iran's
ballistic
missile
launch,
outside the
Council Iran
distributed a
written
statement,
while Israel's
Danny Danon
and then
Samantha Power
spoke.

Iran's
statement
said,
"Security
Council
resolution
2231 does not
prohibit
legitimate and
conventional
military
activities,
nor does
international
law disallow
them. Iran has
never sought
to acquire
nuclear weapon
and never will
in the future,
as it fully
honours its
commitment
under the NPT
and the JCPOA.
Consequently,
Iran's
missiles are
not and could
not be
designed for
delivery of
unconventional
weapons. We
reject
arbitrary
interpretation
of the
provisions of
Security
Council
resolution
2231 and its
annexes, and
call upon all
parties to act
in good-faith
and refrain
from
provocations."

Danny
Danon had a
exhibit, a
photo of
launching
missile. Inner
City Press
asked him if
he though Ban
Ki-moon is
"letting it
all hang out"
in his final
year
(including
though the ouster
of Inner City
Press, petition
here);
Danon said
they don't
always agree,
but they talk.

The UN
Secretariat's
bungling of
Yemen
mediation has
become ever
more clear,
according to
multiple
sources and
documents
exclusively
seen by Inner
City Press,
see below.

In
the UN
Security
Council on the
Yemen
sanctions
resolution
adopted on
February 24,
language was
added to try
to discourage
the Panel of
Experts from
looking into
the act of the
Saudi-led
Coalition.
Concessions
were made, of
a kind not
made for or
about other
countries
under
sanctions.

(Inner City
Press had to
follow the
process from
outside the
UN, literally,
the park on
43rd Street
across First
Avenue,
because only
days after
Inner City
Press asked
why the UN was
so quiet about
false
claims of
Iranian
military
equipment
in a UN WFP
aid ship,
Inner City
Press was
summarily
thrown out of
the UN, and
Banned,
without due
process. Petition
here.)

On
March 1, back
in on a
reduced access
pass, Inner
City Press
asked UN OCHA
official John
Ging about
taking "aid"
money from
Saudi Arabia
while it
blasts away at
Yemen. Video
here.

Ging
said these two
are "ring
fenced," and
that the UN
doesn't allow
Saudi Arabia
to put
conditions on
aid or where
it is
delivered.

Inner
City Press
asked, what
about the
Saudi threat
that aid
workers should
leave
Houthi-controlled
areas? Ging
said the UN
had pushed
back.

But
quietly, as
was the case
with the Saudi
diversion of
the WFP ship.
Does money
talk?
Apparently
yes.

The
Yemen
"government,"
which under UN
rules could
hold a press
conference for
all
journalists in
the UN Press
Briefing Room,
has instead
chosen to
invited only
members of the
Gulf and
Western media
dominated UN
Correspondents
Association to
a spin
session. We've
put the leaked
invitation
online here;
here's some of
the text:

Dear
Colleagues,

UNCA is
extending an
invitation
sent from the
Permanent
Mission of the
Republic of
Yemen, to a
light
breakfast
briefing with
a public
diplomacy
delegation on
their visit to
New York to
discuss the
current
political
situation in
Yemen, on
Tuesday, March
8th at 9:00am
at the mission
(413 East 51st
street).
Please see the
attached
invitation to
RSVP.

Giampaolo
Pioli, UNCA
President

The
focus of the
annexed
invitation is
on "IHL and
HRL violations
of the Houthi
- Saleh
rebels." This
is UNCA: this
is how the UN
works, or
doesn't.

On
March 3, Inner
City Press
asked UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq why
UN OCHA
official
Stephen
O'Brien said
he was
"pleased" when
Saudi Arabia,
which funds
O'Brien's
Yemen appeal,
continues to
hold the UN's
"humanitarian
IT equipment"
at least under
March 6, after
Yemen's
Ambassador -
sure to be
present at the
spoon-fed
breakfast for
UNCA - said
was Iranian
military
equipment.

On
February 28,
Ban Ki-moon
but not his
invisible
envoy issued a
canned
statement
about the
previous day's
airstrike:

"The
Secretary-General...
calls for a
prompt and
impartial
investigation
of this
incident."

Ban's call for
an impartial
investigation
rings hollow,
when he has
allowed his
Under
Secretary
General for
Public
Information
Cristina
Gallach to
oust Inner
City Press,
which reports
on Yemen,
based on an
"investigation"
which never
even SPOKE to
Inner City
Press. This
incongruity,
and its
consequences,
has been
raised
directly to
Ban and his
most senior
advisers.
Impartial?